At the Don Jail, which holds 562 inmates, six meeting rooms are set aside for legal counsel. At the Toronto West Detention Centre, which holds 631 inmates, there are five. Both facilities will close once their populations are transferred to the new detention centre.

Defence lawyer Roots Gadhia was on the Wednesday night tour of the superjail with other members of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, a way for the Correctional Services ministry to get feedback from parties involved in the justice system.

“I think it’s troubling that they didn’t really consider the purpose of the detention centre as a remand facility,” Gadhia said.

“They’re so quick to say how great the technology is going to be in the building and how excellent the services are going to be and that it cost $600 million to build. But from a justice perspective and a right-to-counsel perspective and the right to a fair trial . . . having two rooms for 1,650 inmates is troubling.”

The rooms will be available by appointment, which has Gadhia concerned about making last-minute visits before or during trials.

The result, she said, could be delays in the courtroom.

A third face-to-face room may be available depending on immigration and parole board hearings, said ministry spokesman Brent Ross.

There are also three private rooms where the lawyer and client are separated by glass and five private “video visit” rooms where the two are connected by video link.

“It is anticipated that the video visit rooms at the Toronto South Detention Centre will actually improve counsel’s access to their clients, as there is no need to physically relocate an inmate to accommodate the visit, allowing for more visits per day,” said Ross. “Access to legal counsel is an essential right in our justice system.”

But Gadhia said it’s the face-to-face meetings that are crucial.

Lawyers visit their clients in jail to get them to sign or review documents ahead of trials, which often means poring over piles of paper and, increasingly, reviewing videos, audio and documents stored on discs.

“You certainly can’t do that over a Skype-style screen or through glass, clean as the glass may be,” Gadhia said.

Getting in to see a client is already a challenge with overcrowded jails, frequent lockdowns and the few rooms available taken up by parole or immigration hearings, say lawyers.

“The problem is crippling now and this would take it from crippling to the status quo,” said Rusonik.

Still, Gadhia hopes the number of rooms can still be changed, though it may be too late.

“The building has been built, the areas have been designated. Although I understand their position is that nothing is yet written in stone, it is stone already,” she said. “I think this was very short-sighted plan on their part.”

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